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The last major piece of President Barack Obama's health care law could raise costs for thrifty consumers as well as large corporations and union members when it takes effect in 2018. The so-called Cadillac tax was meant to discourage extravagant coverage. Critics say it's a tax on essentials, not luxuries. It's getting attention now because employers plan ahead for major costs like health care. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 9/1)

The financial condition of Connecticut’s hospitals, and how they’ve fared under the federal health law, has been a source of dispute among state lawmakers. Hospitals have faced repeated funding cuts and increased taxes in recent state budgets. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration has said hospitals are benefitting from Obamacare, since it has led to more patients with coverage – that is, more paying customers. But hospital officials say that, while they support the coverage expansion, it hasn’t led to a financial windfall, and that state funding cuts and tax hikes, along with cuts in Medicare payments in the health law, have added to the burden they face. (Levin Becker and Chang, 9/2)

Florida Healthy Kids Corporation is blaming President Obama's health care law after notifying parents that health insurance premiums will increase for thousands of kids starting next month, jumping from $140 to as high as $284. Healthy Kids, which offers insurance options where parents can pay full-price or get subsidized coverage depending on eligibility, said the increases will affect the families of nearly 34,749 children in the full-pay program. That's about 19 percent of the organization's 178,873 enrollees. (Kennedy, 9/1)